An elegant little classical firehouse, still in use as a medic station, on Lafayette Avenue at the corner of Federal Street. It dates from before 1910 and after 1903.
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Truck Co. No. 50, Lafayette Hilltop
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St. Luke’s English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lafayette Hilltop
This fine building, put up in 1912, is well preserved but unused, and we hope it can be kept in good shape. It sits in the Perry Hilltop part of Lafayette Hilltop—“Perry South” on city planning maps. It was designed by Chancey or Chauncey W. Hodgdon (we have found the name spelled both ways), in an interesting combination of styles—round arches for the smaller windows, broad Gothic arches for the large windows, and a Tudor Gothic arcade in the front; except that the arches are more rounded than usual Tudor arches. Perhaps an architectural historian can nail down the style precisely, or perhaps it is simply unique to Hodgdon.
The Allegheny City Society has a substantial article about this church in the spring 2017 issue of the society newsletter (PDF).
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Lafayette Hilltop Sign
This somewhat bedraggled sign is perhaps a little more emblematic of the neighborhood around it than it was intended to be. Lafayette Hilltop is not one of the ninety designated “neighborhoods” of Pittsburgh: it’s one of the many distinct subneighborhoods that have no official existence but a very real social existence. You’ll find it at the northern end of Federal Street where it crosses Lafayette Avenue—an area right on the line between “Perry South” (as the city planning maps call Perry Hilltop) and Fineview. It is a pleasant neighborhood with some fine houses and good residential streets, but also some decaying buildings and vacant landmarks. We hope the rising tide in the city will lift it into comfortably moderate prosperity.
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The View from Federal Street
Low clouds and rays of sunshine make an atmospheric picture, as seen from Lafayette Hilltop.
